Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1887-10-07
ALLAN QUARIERAAlp
4 BROWNING CITY
CHAPTER xL.-A FRowSINe CITY.


gotten dawns They were the yapors ris-
ing from their watery bed to greet the sun.
Then the gray turned to primrose, and the
primrose grew to red Next, glorious bars
Of light sprang up across the eastern sky,
and through them the radiant messengers
of the dawn came speeding upon their ar
rowy way, scattering the ghostly vapors
and awaking the mountains with kiss,
MS they few from range to range and long
titude to longitude Another moment and
the golden gates were open and the sun
himself came forth as bridegroom from
his chamber, with pomp and glory and
flashing as OF ten million spears, and en-
braced the night and covered her with
brightness and II was day.
But rs yet c see nothing save the
beautiful blue ssy above; for over the wat
err was thick layer Of mist, exactly as
though the whole surface had been covered
with pillows Of cotton wool BY degrees.
however, the sun sucked up the mists and
then ! saw that we were afioat upon glor-
ious sheet of blue water Of which | could
not make out the shore. Some eight or
ten miles behind us, however, there
stretched, as far "a the eye could reach, n
range OF PERCEPTIONS hills that formed
retaining WALL VI iiit lliht, anu liaNt az
doubt that 1t was through some entrance
In these hills that the subterranean river
found it's way into the open water Indeed,
afterward asccrtained this to be the fact;
and It will be some indication OF the cx-
traordinary strength and dircctncss OF the
current of the mysterious river, that the
canoe, even at this distance, was still an
swering TO II. Presently, too, |, or rather
. 49, 4 14-
covered another indication, and very un
pleasant one it was. Perceiving some
whitish object upon the water UmslOpo-
gaas called my attention to IT, and with a
few strokes Of the paddle brought the ca
noe 10 the spot; whereupon we discovered
that the object was the body Of n man
floating face downward. This was bad
enough; but imagine my horror when,
UmslOpogaas having turned him on his
back with the paddle, we recognized In the
sunkcn features the lineaments of-whom
do you SUPPOSE None other than our poor
servant who had been sucked down two
days before I'm the waters of the subter-
ranean river. IT gave me quite turn.
thought that we had left him behind for
ever; and behold! borne by the current, he
had made the awful Journey with us, and
ance also was very dreadful. He had been
n black mnn. now hn was a livid white; for
the boiling water had scaldcd Off nearly
all his outer skin. Also he bore traces of
having touched the pillar OF fre-one arm
being completely shrivelcd up and all his
hair being burned of The features were,
as l nave said, sunken, and yet they pre-
served upon them tlrlt awful look Of de
nIr ant 1 Ia hiu lf,-fpfr
MS the poor fellow was sucked down.
Really the sight quite unncrved me, weary
and shaken IA felt with all that we had
gone through, and | was heartily glad
when suddenly, and without any warming
the body began TO sink just as though it
had had mission, which having accom-
plishcd It rcsrcd; the real reason, no doubt,
being that turning il on its back allowed a
free passage to thc gas. Down il went In
TO tho transparent depths -fathom after
fathom we could trace its course, till ut last
long line of bright air-bubblcs, swiftly
chasing each other to the surface alone
remained where it had passed At length
these, too, were gone, and that was an end
of our poor servant. Umslopogaas thought
fully watched tho body vanish.
"What did he follow us for2" he asked
"Tis an Ill omen for thee and me, Macum-
nzuhn." And he laughed.
turned on him angriIy, for / dislike
these unpleasant suggestions. II people
have such ideas, they ought in common
deCency to keep them To themselves. Ide-
test individuals who make one the subject
of their disagrecablc prcsrntiments, or
who, when they dreamed that they saw
one hanged as a common fclun, or some
such horror, will insist upon telling one all
about It Mt breakfast, even If they have to
get up early 10 do it,
Just then, however, the others woke up
and began To rejoice exceedingly at find
ing that we were out of that dreadful river
and once more beneath the blue sky. Then
followed a babel of talk and suggestions
as TO what we were To do next; the upshOt
OF all Of which was, that, aS we were cX-
cessIvely hungry. and had nothing what
sOever left To eat except few scraps of
biltong tIriod game feshl, having aban-
doncd all that remained of our provisions
TO those horrible frcsh-water crabs, we
determined to make for the shore. But
now new difficulty arose. We did not
know where the shore was, and, with the
exception Of the cliffs through which the
subterranean river mado its entry, could
sec nothing but wide eNpanSe of spark
ling blue water. Observing, however, tina.
tho long flights of aquatic birds kept flying
from our left. we concluded that they were
advancing from their fecding-groundS On
shore to pass the day In the lake, and nc
cordingly headed the boat toward the quar-
ter whence they came, and hogan to pad
die. Before long, however, Il stitlish breeze
sprung up, blowing directly in the direC-
ton we wanted, so we improylsed n sail
with a blanket and the pole, which took
us along merrily. This done, we proceed
ed To devour the remnants of our biltOug,
washed down with the sweet lake water,
and then lit our pipes and awaited what
ever might turn up.
When we had been sailing for an hour,
Good, who was searching the horizon with
spy-glaSs, suddenly announced joyfully
that he saw land, and pointed out that,
from the change in the color Of the water.
he thought we must be approaching the
mouth of river. In another minute we
perceiyad n great golden dome, not unlike
That OF st. Paurs, piercing the morning
miSts and while we were wondering what
in the world IL could he, Good reported an
Other and still more important discovery,
namely, that a small sailing boat was I'D
vancing toward us. This bit of news
which we were very shortly able to verify
with our own eyes, threw us into cousid-
erahlc fiuttcr. That the natives of this I'M
known lake should understand the art of
sailing, seemed to suggest that they pos
sesscd some degree of civilization. In n
few more minutes ii became evident that
the ocCupantOr occupants Of the advancing
boat had made MS out. Fer moment or
two she hung in the wind as though in
doubt, and then came lacking toward us
with great swittneSs. item more minutes
she was within a hundred yards, and we
saw that she was neat little boat-not n
canoe dug ont" but built more or less in
the European fashion, with planks, and
carrying a siuCularly large sail for her
size. But our attention was soon diverted
from the boat to her crew. which consisted
0t a man and woman, ncurlH as iChitc Us
ourselves.
We stared at each other in amazemcnt,
thinking that we must be mistaken: but
no, there was no doubt about it. They
were not fair. but the two people in the
boat were decidedly of white as iistiu-
guished from black race. rs white, for
instance, as Spauiards or Italians. Ii was
patent fact. So it was true, after all:
and, mySteriously led by Power beyond
our own. we had discovered this wonder
ful people. | could have shouted for 10Y
when thought Of the glory and the Won
der of the thing;and rs ii was, we all shook
hands and congratulated each other on the
unexpected success of our wild search.
4 II my life hnI I ba1r,1 ,-,,p,.-., - ,,-h;s,